DRC: Dealers Fleece Diggers for a Share of DRC's Illegal Gold

Feb 20, 2015 | African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting
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Western companies mining gold industrially in DRC have diggers on their land, but fear that if they work them the companies will be accused by international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) of funding conflict.The diggers are required to hand 30% of all gold they mine to the company and 50% to the chef du puits, the pit boss, who directs the mining operation. There is not much left for anyone else. Most of the gold is smuggled to Uganda and other neighbours of eastern DRC. It then goes to Dubai, where lax customs reporting requirements means the trail runs cold. Back in the West, campaigners, policymakers and consumers, alerted by United Nations Group of Experts (GoE) research and others that gold mined in this way is the largest source of funding from minerals for conflict in the DRC.